Offices Held

Biography

Ashe bought Langley Burrell from John Wildman I in 1657. With his name and background he could hardly avoid coming under suspicion after the Restoration, though when a seditious letter addressed to a dangerous fanatic was brought to him during the second Dutch war, he very properly sent it on to the nearest j.p., (Sir) Edward Bayntun. He was described as a barrister, but there is no evidence that he practised. He was restored to the commission of the peace in 1674, but removed at Bayntun’s instance. At the second general election of 1679 he defeated the courtier Francis Gwyn at Chippenham. He was presumably an exclusionist, but no parliamentary activity can definitely be attributed to him, and for the Oxford Parliament he was replaced by a more prominent Whig, Sir George Speke. He does not seem to have stood again. He died ‘very aged’, and was buried at Langley Burrell on 8 Nov. 1708, according to his last instructions, ‘using only at that time the offices of the Church of England’. His son Joseph was elected for Chippenham in 1710, but unseated on petition.2